The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

496 SHAM REFORM AND REAL RE-ACTION.into revolution, and the Papacy appeareddoomed to a violentdeath at the hands of thoseevil principles which itselfhad engendered. His first glance at the Catholic world,after his elevation to the tiara, must have satisfied the Popethat the condition of western Europe was very differentindeedfrom what it was in the fifteenth century,— differenteven from what it was in the middle of last century,—thatthe democratic element, which had burst out with such terrorin the first French Revolution, and which had spent itselfin the wars that followed, had been recruiting its forces duringthe period of quiescence since 1815,—that it now universallypervaded the west,—that it had summoned to itsaid principles of unknown character, but of tremendouspower,—and that there was not strength enough in eitherthe secular or the sacerdotal system to withstand the comingshock, unless, indeed, both should come to be re-invigorated.Pius was aware especially, that in Italy a constitutionalmovement was in progress, and had been so in the latteryears of his predecessor Gregory XVI. He knew thatthoughtful Italians, both in and out of Italy, were painfullysensible of the demoralization of theircountry,—that theyattributed that demoralization to the character and form ofits government,—that they regarded the rule of a sacerdotalmonarch as an anomaly, unsuited to the spirit and thewants of the age, and a barrier to progress,—that throughoutallItaly, more especially in the States of the Church, wherethe evil was more felt, and even in Rome itself, the desirewas universal among all classes for the disjunction of thetemporal and spiritual sovereignties.All this was perfectlywell known to Pius IX. on his elevation to the fisherman'schair ; and it is necessary to keep this in view, as it explainsthe phase that Popery assumed, and the new tacticswhich it adopted, and likewise furnishes the key to its presentstate and prospects.** " This movement is of some stiinding in Italy, and cannot now besuppressed. Mr Seymour, in his " Mornings among the Jesuits," says that